Worlds First Drum Machine in Pedal Form!

[Downunderwonder]

It would be nice to get a total order email confirmation having ordered one of everything and changed address. I know the computer should have it all pegged, but I don't trust computers.

 

[Feral Feline]

We will have a Mac version of the software. However, it will probably be released around 1 month after we release the PC version (which we plan to release in the next couple of weeks). Once we make the Mac conversion, any changes to the software have to be done twice -- once for each version. So we want to get the PC version right first before converting to Mac.

It will look, more or less, like the demo. The software is not intended to be used to compose beats. There is plenty of software out there that can do that (such as garageband, cubase, ez drummer, etc.) so we're not trying to repeat other people's work. The software is intended mainly to organize your midi loops into song structure to be used on the BeatBuddy -- as well as creating drum sets from WAV files.

Thank you Mr Packouz.
A logical response. I'm not concerned with when, so long as I know it's coming down the pipe. Time for me to check the Pre-Order situation, and my bank account situation.
ah...
One more question: If I compose in Garageband, and import to My Beat Buddy, how does the MBB interpret the song, ie will the MBB super-impose its real-drummer-feel as per the pre-loaded MBB algorithms, or-will-it-be-the-non-hu-man-quant-ized-Ga-rage-band-per-fect-rhy-thm ?

Well, we have our answer. I just want to clarify that I wasn't trying to dismiss or downplay your concern---I certainly understand the general concern of needing the software to be compatible with the right OS. I was just trying to understand a little better what was making you think there might not be a Mac version, given the limited details we had on either version of the software---genuine curiosity on my part, even if that wasn't clear. But again, that's now a moot point.

No worries man. I have had products that purportedly would have Mac software available "soon", and then the manufacturer decides to scrap the Mac version 'cause the numbers "don't warrant development". I have lusted after music products that were never offered, nor intended, to have Mac compatibility. Most of this experience is in the past, as Apple has since grown its market share, particularly amongst the creative communities of computer users – thus I'm less frustrated, less often.

 

[ArtechnikA]

I once worked for the manufacturer of a niche product involving device firmware and PC-based GUI software (vehicle diagnostic systems). He absolutely refused to acknowledge the Mac market. Mind you, this was more than 10 years ago, before Macs became Intel boxes running Unix... It's very hard to support the development of two product branches when one branch outsells the other by 100:1... He used to say that there was no quicker path to death for a niche product than to support a niche OS. I quit having religeous associations with OS's and architectures 30 years ago - I just work with whatever the bean-counters direct. (For my own products, developed on my own time, and with my own resources, the story is a little different, but only a little...)

Of course, there are plenty of media-oriented packages that are available _only_ for Mac. For some reason, I never see PC users clamoring for 'their' version - they just buy something else.

So I'm glad to see that the BeatBuddy team has made an initial commitment to the Mac community. I hope the numbers support continued development.

 

[Feral Feline]

Done like dinner, the whole enchilada.

3246

 

[SingularSound]

Thank you Mr Packouz.
One more question: If I compose in Garageband, and import to My Beat Buddy, how does the MBB interpret the song, ie will the MBB super-impose its real-drummer-feel as per the pre-loaded MBB algorithms, or-will-it-be-the-non-hu-man-quant-ized-Ga-rage-band-per-fect-rhy-thm ?

Yes and no. The quantizing (where everything is played robotically perfectly on the beat) is something that would be done by Garageband, unless you have a 'humanizing' feature which randomizes the timing a bit (usually with mixed results). The way we do it is record (in midi format) actual drummers playing so we don't need to fake the human feel -- it comes out the way they play it. What the BeatBuddy WILL do is create smooth transitions between loops (this is a function of the drum sets) -- as long as you're composing your beats in General MIDI format -- which most MIDI beat composition software, such as Garageband, does.

 

[eloann]

I just thought of something : since we can import our own drum sounds, we could also import non-drum sounds tricking this thing into some kind of looper - rights ?
I could see the accent hit being used to trigger samples, or just a "beat" being a simple bass line to check out the front of the house sound.

 

[Adamixoye]

I just thought of something : since we can import our own drum sounds, we could also import non-drum sounds tricking this thing into some kind of looper - rights ?
I could see the accent hit being used to trigger samples, or just a "beat" being a simple bass line to check out the front of the house sound.

I think that is a possibility from what I understand.

 

[sunbeast]

You would just have to use an outside program to turn your samples into MIDI files. The Beat Buddy doesn't yet support individual WAV samples as I understand it.

 

[eloann]

But it does allow users to import their own drum sounds (unless that was dropped along the way)

Just tell your BeatBuddy the sound you're feeding it is a kick drum when it's actually a low E on bass.
And that "crash" you trigger with the accent footswitch could be an E major chord hit on horns. And then a B7 on piano in the next part.

 

[eveilleu]

Yes and no. The quantizing (where everything is played robotically perfectly on the beat) is something that would be done by Garageband, unless you have a 'humanizing' feature which randomizes the timing a bit (usually with mixed results). The way we do it is record (in midi format) actual drummers playing so we don't need to fake the human feel -- it comes out the way they play it. What the BeatBuddy WILL do is create smooth transitions between loops (this is a function of the drum sets) -- as long as you're composing your beats in General MIDI format -- which most MIDI beat composition software, such as Garageband, does.

So in essence, the beatbuddy software assigns tracks that are imported to the different fills/loop spots ie: assigns tracks to the "taps on the pedal spot" and that's pretty much it?

Like you'd go file A is the loop. file B is fill 1 and file C is fill 2 and so on?

Does it "understand" the beat?

Eric

 

[Moley13]

I just thought of something : since we can import our own drum sounds, we could also import non-drum sounds tricking this thing into some kind of looper - rights ?
I could see the accent hit being used to trigger samples, or just a "beat" being a simple bass line to check out the front of the house sound.

This was my FIRST thought when I saw you could (possibly, in the future, maybe) load your own .WAVs. I wonder how slow the "tempo" goes - like, could you record 30 seconds of audio as your "kick drum" and thus use it as a foot-pedal sampler for whole sections of songs?

Given this is an "indie developer", I expect as far as features which are limited only by software, not hardware, the sky's the limit as long as there is community demand and support for such features. For example, after the initial release, a crowd-funding campaign could be run to fund the development of extended features like this. Presuming, of course, the developer wasn't saving this kind of functionality for the "chord-buddy"

 

[Moley13]

This was my FIRST thought when I saw you could (possibly, in the future, maybe) load your own .WAVs. I wonder how slow the "tempo" goes - like, could you record 30 seconds of audio as your "kick drum" and thus use it as a foot-pedal sampler for whole sections of songs?

Given this is an "indie developer", I expect as far as features which are limited only by software, not hardware, the sky's the limit as long as there is community demand and support for such features. For example, after the initial release, a crowd-funding campaign could be run to fund the development of extended features like this. Presuming, of course, the developer wasn't saving this kind of functionality for the "chord-buddy"

Oh dude, light-bulb moment - have multiple "buddies" (beat, chord, sample, etc.) which sync up via the midi I/O. Buy whichever ones you need, or all of them for a complete one-man-band.

EDIT: ORRRRRRR a generic "buddy" which CAN do any ONE of these things at a time. Buy extra buddies for simultaneous operation. Ok, this idea is getting outta hand.

 

[Feral Feline]

Press Release from Singular Sound Thursday July 24th, 2014:

The answer to every coffee-shop musician's, singer-songwriter's, busker's dream: "My Band Buddy". Due for release November 2015, in time for the holiday rush.

Most of the bands I play in don't have a drummer, and a drummer is not needed for the music. The only reason I need MBB is for the jokes told while the guitarist changes a broken string and for the one-liners between songs...




What I'd SERIOUSLY like, is a partial refund on shipping. Just ship it direct to me from the factory please. No need to ship it to the US (where everybody there gets free shipping ) and then ship it back to Asia.
I'm not asking for free shipping, I'll happily pay for direct logisitics; I just don't like subsidising all that "free shipping" when my own shipping cost should be next to nothing 'cause I'm so close to the factory it'd probably be cheaper for me to hop on my motorcycle and pick it up myself.

Worse, I'll probably get one that wasn't cleaned well, and then it'll go across the Pacific, not once, but twice... making it a dirty double crosser.

 

[sunbeast]

But it does allow users to import their own drum sounds (unless that was dropped along the way)

Just tell your BeatBuddy the sound you're feeding it is a kick drum when it's actually a low E on bass.
And that "crash" you trigger with the accent footswitch could be an E major chord hit on horns. And then a B7 on piano in the next part.

I asked about this a long time back and got the impression that the included software only sequences sections of songs rather than actually building beats from the individual drum set into a beat. So you can't import your own WAV sounds, but can import MIDI "parts" with your own sounds built using another program. I could be wrong in that understanding though (it still doesn't quite make sense to me!)

 

[pasmithy]

Well, after a lot of hours i figured out "garage band" to make my own midi beats. Then I realized all I need to do is use the midi out on my Roland V-drums and record my beats in midi. Maybe I'm thick but "garage band" isn't straight up simple...LOL

I'm just figuring that after it's released one of you geniuses will post a video on You Tube on a simple way to program my own beats...

 

[SingularSound]

I just thought of something : since we can import our own drum sounds, we could also import non-drum sounds tricking this thing into some kind of looper - rights ?
I could see the accent hit being used to trigger samples, or just a "beat" being a simple bass line to check out the front of the house sound.

Yes, you can import any WAV file into the drum set or accent hit.

Limitations:

There is no size limit for a wav in a drumset as long as it fits inside the total size of 100 MB allowed per drum set. For a accent hit, the size of the wav is limited to 15 seconds of sound. The size will depends on its format (16/24bit and mono/stereo). The maximum size (24 bit stereo) is approximately 3.78 MB.

 

[SingularSound]

You would just have to use an outside program to turn your samples into MIDI files. The Beat Buddy doesn't yet support individual WAV samples as I understand it.

The MIDI files trigger the WAV files in the drum sets to generate the sound. You can create your own drum sets using any WAV file in the BeatBuddy Manager software.

You can import your own MIDI files to create your own songs in the BB Manager software as well.

 

[Adamixoye]

Yes, you can import any WAV file into the drum set or accent hit.

Limitations:

There is no size limit for a wav in a drumset as long as it fits inside the total size of 100 MB allowed per drum set. For a accent hit, the size of the wav is limited to 15 seconds of sound. The size will depends on its format (16/24bit and mono/stereo). The maximum size (24 bit stereo) is approximately 3.78 MB.

The MIDI files trigger the WAV files in the drum sets to generate the sound. You can create your own drum sets using any WAV file in the BeatBuddy Manager software.

You can import your own MIDI files to create your own songs in the BB Manager software as well.

These weren't features that were super important to me but I'm getting excited about them anyway!

 

[SingularSound]

So in essence, the beatbuddy software assigns tracks that are imported to the different fills/loop spots ie: assigns tracks to the "taps on the pedal spot" and that's pretty much it?

Like you'd go file A is the loop. file B is fill 1 and file C is fill 2 and so on?

Does it "understand" the beat?

Eric

That is correct. You assign different MIDI files to act as different parts of the song: verse, chorus, fills, transition, etc.

It 'understands' the beat in the sense that it knows what time signature it is in, so it makes sure that all changes are done on time at the end of the bar, regardless of when you triggered the fill or transition. It also makes sure that the loops don't conflict with each other as they change from one to the other. But the quality of the beat you get, is the quality of the beat you put in it. So if you put a badly made beat into it (such as with bad dynamics), it won't make it much better. But a great beat will sound fantastic.

 

[SingularSound]

Oh dude, light-bulb moment - have multiple "buddies" (beat, chord, sample, etc.) which sync up via the midi I/O. Buy whichever ones you need, or all of them for a complete one-man-band.

EDIT: ORRRRRRR a generic "buddy" which CAN do any ONE of these things at a time. Buy extra buddies for simultaneous operation. Ok, this idea is getting outta hand.

HA! We're working on it ;-)